Watchdog mulls full cease of gasoline exports with some oil firms

MOSCOW, Aug 23 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service is discussing with oil companies the possibility of fully ceasing gasoline exports due to autumn repairs at oil refineries, and oil major Surgutneftegas is ready to relocate additional volumes of gasoline from exports to the domestic market, Dmitry Makhonin, director of the service’s regulation department, told PRIME on Thursday.

“We have companies, with which we are discussing a full cease of export supplies, despite the fact that the export market is much more premium than the domestic market. The situation was studied in details at a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak yesterday (Wednesday). A task has been set not to reduce vigilance in terms of control over the price situation. We will constantly work with companies in order that supply on the market is acceptable, we will daily monitor the situation,” he said.

Such a decision was already made by Surgutneftegas, Makhonin said. “The company will now re-orient to the domestic market and will sell goods at exchange auctions, including at an additional trade session. The company is able to ensure additional around 100,000 tonnes to the domestic market. This is a good volume – it will be able to compensate for a shortfall in volumes on repairs and etc. The period is until the end of September, as several repairs at oil refineries are planned for September,” he said.

Repairs in autumn are planned at Lukoil’s refinery in Nizhny Novgorod, but the company has accumulated sufficient volumes of fuel and will not reduce supply, Makhonin said. Oil major Rosneft will finish repairs at the Kuibyshev and Achinsk oil refineries ahead of schedule and will thus raise supply volumes, including at exchange auctions.

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